[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. It's interesting... I've read a few articles about how long it takes to cook rice in an Insta Pot and that it is not any faster than on a stove top. That is true if I use the "rice" setting. I purchased a Insta Pot cookbook that has me use the pressure cook setting instead. This takes about five or six minutes to cook the rice (including coming up to temp) and then 10 minutes to cool it. This is about a 10 minute savings over both the stove and the rice setting. I like the one pot element of this too. I've made fried rice a couple times and cooked the rice, scrambled the eggs, and sauteed the veggies. I also used it to steam dumplings and fry scallion pancakes. I'm learning. I haven't done any braising or slow cooking but maybe I'll try that later.

Our kitchen remodel, which was supposed to be finished sometime this week is now stretching to the end of Sept. They screwed up the floors and had to completely redo them. Oh well

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - why don't you like the InstaPot? Ours would be too big for your needs. But they do make smaller models.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've been experimenting with my insta pot. I've made fried rice, scrambled eggs, steam dumplings, and scallion pancakes. So it is proving more versatile than just as a rice cooker. Serious Eats has an article on using it for brisket and how the temp can be off. I haven't tried that yet and I may just wait until our appliances are in and our kitchen is back before I make brisket.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Pretty cool.

There is a restaurant on Staten Island where the owner employed Italian grandmas in the kitchen to cook. There are tons of articles about it and Netflix even made movie called "Nonnas" about. My family has watched it MANY times.

I wish they had more on how he takes a home recipe and scales it. The Winnetka Cafe story was nice too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I didn't see the bread mode Instapots, just the fermenting. And they use the mode that is 72-75 degrees. I don't need an Instapot for that in the summer! Although between the clouds and the smoke from the Canadian fires our house dropped down to 70 for a day.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi BA. When you say you have 35 cookies that will last for a while, how big are they? Cookies are consumed at various rates in our house depending on how many kids are here. Kate likes petit cookies as she thinks they are more "elegant". Violet is beginning to adopt the same view. I like them bigger, depending on what and who I am baking them for.

Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Len. Ribs and pork butt are on my list. I have an beginner cookbook that has some baking in it like brownies and cheesecake but not bread. I may experiment with bread once we get our kitchen back and I am less dependent on this for rice for our dog.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks all. Violet was wonderful despite being very nervous. And it is always great to be with family to celebrate.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Violet's bat mitzvah is done and we're (mostly) recovered. Things were a little tight last week because my plan was to bake on Thursday. We ended up needing to have some meetings with the contractor so I didn't get into the kitchen until about 2:30 instead of in the morning. I had to be done by 4 at the latest so I didn't have time so braid, proof, and bake the challah. I made dough for three different types of cookies - chocolate chip, molasses, and Persian shortbread, my GF option.

I came in Friday at 7 (it's the earliest I am allowed in and an hour earlier than any non-employee) and I made the loaves first and set them aside to proof. While my challah was proofing I started making cookies and had 10 dozen chocolate chip done before the bread went in. My synagogue has two ovens so I could bake both cookies and bread at the same time. I finished the bread, chocolate chip, and molasses cookies and then had to go into rehearsal for an hour.

After the rehearsal the caterer had dropped off food so I had to help Kate and Violet get it into the kitchen for the next day. It's customary to have a small lunch after a bar or bat mitzvah and we had that catered.

After all that it was about noon and I had one cookie left to bake. It also is rolled and cut so requires some extra work. I made 8 dozen of the Persian shortbread. I substitute brown butter for Ghee or clarified butter because I am too lazy to make them and too cheap to buy them. And I substitute vanilla for rose water because I don't like rose water. Then I did cleanup. I should have waited a little longer letting the shortbread cool but I was exhausted and had to get cleaned up myself for family coming into down for Friday night.

All told I made 4x2 lb loaves of challah and 3/4 of it was eaten. I made about 320 cookies. All the chocolate chip went and half of the molasses and shortbread went. The shortbread was interesitng because when it was labeled GF people stayed away except for GF people. Another plate that was not labeled GF was finished, refilled, and finished again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This will be an interesting baking week. The heat finally broke today! Only a high in the mid 80s. But Our kitchen is packed up and demo begins tomorrow.

Violet's bat mitzvah is next Saturday and I am doing the baking for it so I have several hundred cookies and a couple (few) loaves of challah to make. I am hoping I can use the temple kitchen!

[aaronatthedoublef]

So a sort of babka monkey bread! Cool. Thanks

[aaronatthedoublef]

Lots of challah baking. Violet's bat mitzvah is July 11 and she has decided I will make the challah for it. I haven't decided on how many strands in the braid or how big it needs to be. I need to try some 6 strand braids. I have a nice 4 strand going. It looks a bit like a ladder.

Violet has also decided I should make the treats we serve after Friday night services. We do the best we can but unfortunately security costs have mushroomed and so we've cut back in other areas. So I'll bake. I can do better than what the synagogue buys. It's going to require some experimentation and Violet has numerous suggestions. Her latest is macrons which I have only done a couple times long ago and babka which I've never made. So far I have brown butter chocolate chip cookies, molasses cookies, Persian shortbread (made with chickpea flour so GF). Not sure what else to add.

I do have access to the synagogue kitchen which is good for scale but it has no AC so it can be very hot!

[aaronatthedoublef]

So bread didn't last longer, it was eaten faster.

Waxed cloth is being presented as an alternative to plastic bags in my neck of the woods.

There are silicon storage bags for produce too. Lots of stuff to replace single use plastic bags (which I use more than once, anyway).

[aaronatthedoublef]

Okay. Thanks. Either way I need to make it again! The cake looked pretty sad. It baked VERY fast. So I need to drop the oven temp and check it sooner. But KAB says to leave the oven door closed for 45 minutes! It was overbaked by then.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The birthday cake, while looking kind of shaggy and lopsided (my trademark?) was a success. Kate went back for seconds. I made lime n da coconut frosting. It was hard getting coconut flavor. I tried using coconut cream and coconut oil but I needed to add a touch of coconut flavoring to put it over. I also added lime juice from one small lime and zest from two.

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